Coating textiles with metal



Patented Apr. 13, 1926.

- GEORGE GROIPTON, JR., 0]! WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

COATING TEXTILES WITH METAL.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, GEORGE ORoMPToN, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing at Worcester, in the county of vWorcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Coating Textiles with Metal, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the metal coating of cloth and other textiles. it is ossible, as is well known, to print any desired design in an almost unlimited range of colors on cloth. It is also possible to weave many and various designs in different colors by using a multiple shuttle box loom to throw different colored filling and a jacquard machine. The results in the two cases are, however, substantially different; in the latter case the design inheres in the weave itself, while in the former, the lines of division are sharper, as the lines of division have nothing to do with the weave.

Both methods have their peculiar advantages and artistic qualities and will, undoubtedly, always coexist. When manufacturers desired to produce a design in metal on cloth simulating silver or gold, the multiple' box loom and the jacquard were resorted to, one class of filling or warp threads, and sometimes both, being twisted with a flat metal wire. Also, paralleling the print ing of cloth, bronze and silver powders have been made to adhere to cloth by an adhesive. The trouble with this last process is that the printing rolls quickly become clogged with the adhesive substance, and then the resulting design becomes imperfect.

Recently it has been found that a cloth woven without any design and presenting an unbroken face of imitation gold or silver, can be given a design by a deforming process, as the metal will take a certain set.

From all the above my invention clearly distinguishes itself. My invention contemplates the coating of cloth or other textile, with metal that firmly adheres, yet no adhesive substance is used. Subsequently, I cause this metal coating to lose its rigidity and become pliable.

Referring now particularly to the specific embodiment of the invention in the best form known to me, the first step consists in providing a suitable stencil device having any desired design. A suitable back plate or table is then provided and the cloth is clamped between the two. The result is that the cloth Application filed August 28, 1925. Serial No. 663,884.

is completel covered except for those ortions on which the coating is to be ap ied. The back plate and the stencil late s ould be firmly astened together as y the ordinary1 wood clamps, so that all portions of the clot adjacent the ga where the metal is to be deposited will be rmly held.

The next step in my process consists in applying the metal in the form of a molten spray. For this pur ose, a machine of the general class shown y United States Letters Patent No. 1,100,602, to E. Morf of Zurich, Switzerland, is desirably used. Such a machine fuses metal and then atomizes it, and projects the atomized metal in the form.

of a spray. The particular machine men-- tioned will be found fully described in said Letters Patent, but briefly it com rises a small machine adapted to be hel in the hand, havin a compressed air driven turbine which, t rough reduction gearing, feeds wire to a fusing nozzle. At the nozzle a hot flame is maintained, the flame being produced by a mixture of combustible gas and com ressed air. The exhaust from the air turbine also leads to the nozzle and produces the atomizing and spraying referred to.

I do not claim to be the first to discover the general fact that cloth can be thus sprayed with a molten spray without burning the cloth. Such a conclusion is suggested by United States Letters Patent No. 1,128,058, to M. U. Schoop of Hongg, Switzerland. l have found that by using that above described machine shown in the United States Patent No. 1,100,602, and by using a wire composed of a metal of low fusing point (e. g,, tin) that the finest silks and satins can be successfully coated, and that moreover the coating will not peel off.

At this stage in the process, after spraying through all the stencils so that the cloth is completely covered, and desirably stopping before too thick a coating is deposited in any one place, the cloth should be removed and, if desired, a new section treated in the same manner.

At the completion of the coating operation, the cloth has one or a plurality of metal coated portions, arranged in whatever design was desired. The lines of demarcation between the treated and the untreated cloth are sharp. There is, however, an undesirable stiffness to these plated portions and they lack lustre, and it is with the removal of these defects that my invention is chiefly concerned. To this end the metal that is sprayed onto the cloth must be one that will amalgamate with mercury or with a substance having like properties. Tin, already mentioned, is such a metal.

The cloth, or other textile, having been coated in whole or in part with the nonmercuric metal, is then placed in a bath of mercury, or mercury is allowed to flow over it. The mercury amalgamates with the metal coating, thus forming an amalgam. This step in my process ma be hurried by aslight rubbin but the ru bing is not indispensable, an merely serves to accelerate the action.

The cloth, or textile, should then be brushed to remove small globules of mercury and the article is then complete.

I have found, as aforesaid, thatthe finest of silks can be thus coated with amalgam in any desired design. The amalgam coating is extremely liable and the design is sharply defined. t can indeed be removed in part by scraping, but a residuum will always be left that tenaciously adheres to the cloth. Moreover this feature enhances the artistic uality of the resulting product, for the amalgam coating presents difierent degrees of lustre in different places somewhat in the nature of water marks on paper. The design has a distinctly hand wrought effect, for although several reproductions from a given stencil will have identical configurations, they will lack the monotony of exact sameness.

I have found that the amalgam retains its adherence to the cloth apparently indefinitely. Whereas, if allowed to remain untouched for considerable time it will somewhat lose its lustre, upon being touched or moved about, it regains it.

Cloth thus coated with metal has, as aforesaid, an appearance different from anything heretofore produced. It may be used to advantage, for dress goods, hats, or

' wall hangings. Other uses will suggest themselves almost without end to persons interested in such matters.

Such textiles as braids and tassels may be completely coated with amalgam there being no need to use a stencil in suc cases.

Having thus described my process and my product or article of manufacture and given illustrative embodiments of each, I wish it understood that such description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, thescope of my invention being set forth in the following claims, in which the words mercury, amalgam, etc., are to be understood to denote any substance having the same aflinitive property as mercury and any alloy having the properties of an amalgam.

I claim:

1. The process of coating a textile with an adhering amalgam, which consists in causing a coating of non-mercuric metal to be deposited on said textile, and then bringing the coating in contact with mercury.

2. The process of coating a textile with an adhering amalgam, which consists in spraying the textile with a non-mercuric metal, and bringing the thus formed metal coating in contact with mercury.

3. The process of coating a textile with an adhering amalgam, which consists in causing a coating of non-mercuric metal to be deposited on said'textile in the form of a design, and then bringing the coating in contact with mercury.

4.. The process of'coating a textile with an adhering amalgam in the form of a design, which consists in spraying the textile with a non-mercuric metal through a stencil, and then bringing the thus formed metal coating in contact with mercury.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a textile product having an adhering coating of amalgam.

6. As a new article of manufacture, cloth having a design thereon comprising a broken coating of adhering amalgam.

GEORGE CROMPTON, JR. 

